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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29134350">it's r'gina's bday!</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/loubie/pseuds/clairesmeraldo'>clairesmeraldo (loubie)</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Once Upon a Time (TV)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Best Friends, Cupcakes, Fluff, attempt at fluff, regina's bday, six-year-olds</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-02-01</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-02-01</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-13 07:02:01</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,529</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29134350</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/loubie/pseuds/clairesmeraldo</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>emma promises regina a cake for her birthday and that's what she's getting. even if she almost gave her mother a heart attack.</p>
<p>six-year-old and just-turned-to-seven swanqueen.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Evil Queen | Regina Mills &amp; Emma Swan</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>18</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>it's r'gina's bday!</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Little six-year-old Emma had been restless all night. Mary Margaret noticed it and had dropped a little comment about it, “Sweetie, do you need something?” But Emma just spared her a glance, shook her head, and turned back to the grandfather clock on the corner of the wall, muttering under her breath and counting on her tiny fingers. Mary Margaret almost asked her daughter again but her loving husband just placed his hand on her shoulder and kissed her temple, whispered in her ear, “Let her. We know Emma. She’ll tell us when something’s bothering her.” He kissed her hair this time before picking up their dishes.</p>
<p>
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</p>
<p>But their darling Emma never said a word.</p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<hr/>
<p>
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<p>Just before the break of the dawn, Mary Margaret is already up on her feet but the reason is far from her routine (wake up at 5 am, coffee, prepare breakfast, wake David, shower, wake Emma. . .). The moon still shines outside when she peeks on her curtain and she thinks, still groggy with sleep, “Why am I awake at this hour again?”</p>
<p>
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</p>
<p>Then she hears it.</p>
<p>
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</p>
<p>She hears the muffled sound again of a chair being dragged around their floor that prompted her to wake five seconds ago. Mary Margaret’s heart almost jumps in her throat. She pads to David’s side of the bed and shakes his shoulders. “David,” she hisses. But her husband only groans.</p>
<p>
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<p>Mary Margaret nearly punches him in the face but she remembers Emma. <em> Oh god. Emma! </em> She wakes David again, a light repetitive tap on his cheek before she grabs the lamp on their nightstand and tiptoes to Emma’s room. Making sure she wouldn’t make a noise, she slowly turns the doorknob and creaks the door open. Mary Margaret slips in but the racing of her heart had doubled when she sees Emma’s empty bed.</p>
<p>
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<p>Not caring anymore, she goes to their bedroom again and yanks David’s hair who howls in pain. “Ow! Wha--”</p>
<p>
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</p>
<p>“Emma is missing!”</p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<hr/>
<p>
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<p>
  <em> “. . .flour, sugar, measuring--” </em>
</p>
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<p>Tiny chubby fingers reach out and pause the video. Blonde locks sway back and forth as the little girl makes her way again to the chair and stands on it. She peeks on the cupboard again for a, “What was it again? Floor. . .flower. Oh! Flour!” Giggles fill the air when she sees the box of, “F-L-O-U-R. Fl-our!”</p>
<p>
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<p>She bends down and places the said flour on the counter. Little Emma is about to start her search again for sugar when a high-pitched shriek makes her jump on her place, losing her balance and nearly falling off.</p>
<p>
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</p>
<p>
  <em> “Emma!” </em>
</p>
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<p>Emma’s chin wobbles and tears well up in the corner of her eyes. She may be a big girl already but Mommy’s voice startled her and she thinks she’s in trouble.</p>
<p>
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<p>“Mommy,” Emma whispers in the air as she looks at Mommy’s horrified face and Daddy’s gaping mouth.</p>
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<p>“Sweetheart, what are you. . .” Mary Margaret’s voice trails off as she all but runs to Emma, taking the mess she made in her kitchen. “Young lady, what have you been up to?” She voices out loud in wonder, the fear of earlier slowly dissipating now that she finds Emma’s safe. </p>
<p>
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<p>“Mommy, please don’t be mad.” Emma looks up at her, all wide eyes and trembling lips. Innocence and cuteness and fear that Mary Margaret’s heart broke.</p>
<p>
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<p>This time it is David who speaks, “Emma, of course, we wouldn’t be.”</p>
<p>
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<p>And so Emma sniffles and wipes her eyes with the back of her palm, looking down as she says, “I wanna make a cake for Regina. It’s her birthday today.”</p>
<p>
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<p>If Mary Margaret’s heart almost broke earlier, it totally melted now.</p>
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<p>Regina is Emma’s best friend, a girl born months earlier than Emma. She’s the mayor’s daughter living next door to Nolan’s residence. All dark hair and dark eyes and dresses and ribbons on her hair. Emma once called her <em> pretty Regina </em> and talk about her first day in school with the Mills girl to her parents. The Nolan couple loves the young girl and is very glad she’s friends with their daughter.</p>
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<p>“You’re making her a cake?”</p>
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<p>“I’m making her a cake that looks like apple because she loves them!” Emma almost exclaims, with beaming eyes and a wide grin. Her mood easily changing as she remembers her gift for her best friend.</p>
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<p>David and Mary Margaret smile.</p>
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<p>Mary Margaret walks closer to Emma and holds out her hands to brush away the fallen hair covering Emma’s face. Mary Margaret smiles, “I’ll make it later, okay? You need to go to sleep.” </p>
<p>
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<p>But Emma whines, “But Mom. . .I wanna help and Regina’s coming over later and she said she’s early because she wants me to come with her to the park and. . .and we’ll play before we go to her birthday party and I want to give her my gift first and greet her first before the other kids would and I. . .I promise her a cake. . .and. . .and. . .”</p>
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<p>David chuckles, “Okay, sweetie. I need you to take a deep breath first.”</p>
<p>
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<p>Emma’s brows scrunch but she still does as she’s told.</p>
<p>
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<p>Mary Margaret still has a smile on her face. She brushes Emma’s hair with her fingers as Emma puffs in and out deep breaths with a pleading look in her eyes.</p>
<p>
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</p>
<p>“Now, what do we need to make this cake just for Regina?”</p>
<p>
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<p>At a quarter before eight, Mary Margaret had already taken the cake (which turned out to be six cupcakes because 15 minutes to preparing, Emma had changed her mind and sternly reasoned, “Mommy cupcakes are cuter and we can put icing on them and sprinkles and add the apples!” Apples are those little apple candies that are placed on top of the cupcakes by the way.)</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Emma excitedly claps her oven mitten-clad hands and squeals, “They’re here! The cupcakes are here, Daddy!”</p>
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<p>Mary Margaret teaches Emma how to hold the piping bag and squeeze it to put the icing on the treats. The little blonde does it, nose scrunching up in concentration despite the streaks of flour on her left cheek.</p>
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<p>(The icing turned out great, yeah. Besides, Regina’s a sweet understanding girl and she doesn’t judge easily. Always grateful for anything given to her.)</p>
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<p>The sound of the doorbell ringing had Emma jumping from the chair to the floor and sprinting off before Mary Margaret could finish calling her daughter’s name. David shakes his head on his wife while a smile plays on his face and follows her daughter to the door.</p>
<p>
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<p>David Nolan unlocks it and is not surprised when a little girl in a blue dress with a blue ribbon holding her hair up greets him with a bright smile, “Good morning, Mr. Nolan.”</p>
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<p>“Regina!” Flour still clinging to her hair and apron tied on her neck, Emma barges outside and hugs Regina who giggles and hugs back the blonde.</p>
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<p>David looks up from the pair to the town’s mayor and his wife. “Good day, Henry. Cora.”</p>
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<p>“David,” Cora greets with an air kiss on his cheek that made the three of them chuckle and the two men shake each other’s hand.</p>
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<p>Emma ushers Regina inside, hand gripping the brunette’s, into the kitchen where her surprise awaits. The blonde halts at the doorway and turns around to an expectant Regina, excitement dancing in her eyes and teeth biting her bottom lip, stifling the squeal in her chest.</p>
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<p>Emma beams at her. “Close your eyes,” she whispers to which Regina agrees, bobbing her head and shuts her eyes tight.</p>
<p>
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<p>Reluctantly, Emma removes her hand from Regina’s grasp and runs to her mother. “Shh, shh. . .” she tells her mother. Mary Margaret nods and helps Emma bring Regina the tray of cupcakes.</p>
<p>
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<p>One thing about Emma by the way is that she’s never one to stick with the cliches. So, as she walks to Regina, holding the tray just inches away from her chest, Mary Margaret hovering behind her and the three adults finally entering the house, Emma sings. Not a birthday song though but the song taught to them in school and she deems perfect for Regina.</p>
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<p>She sings <em> The Cuppycake Song. </em></p>
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<p>“You're my honeybunch, sugar plum, pumpy-umpy-umpkin. . .you're my sweetie pie.” She pauses to say, a little out of breath, “Open your eyes, R’gina.” And continues to sing as she hears Regina’s gasp, pleased and excited and so so happy. “You're my cuppycake, gumdrop, snoogums-boogums. You're the apple of my eye.”</p>
<p>
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<p>When she comes face-to-face with Regina, the tray of treats the only thing keeping them apart, Emma’s cheeks colored with a shade of pink and she scruffs her socked toe against the wooden floor. “It’s because I promised you a cake but cupcakes are cuter and you love apples too and. . .” Whispering the last part, Emma looks at Regina’s bright smile and wide eyes, “Happy birthday, Regina.”</p>
<p>
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<p>Right there, on February the first, at 8:15 in the morning, a little blonde with apron and icing on her face just made a little brunette who always dresses to perfection happy giddy and heart swelling with gratefulness of being her best friend.</p>
<p>
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<p>Four adults watch two children looking forward to the same thing, <em> their future. . .together. </em></p>
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